Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy

This proposal aims to assist the Australian Government adopt the Investment Framework For Environmental Resources (INFFER) as the recommended approach for planning and prioritisation of environmental and natural resource investments at the regional level.

Caring for Our Country offers a unique opportunity to establish a nationally consistent approach to investment in NRM.

1. The INFFER Framework
2. Potential for INFFER to contribute to Outcomes of CfoC
3. Activities and outputs
4. Project description
5. Monitoring and Evaluating the project's impact and success
6. Partnerships

The INFFER Framework

INFFER is a new nationally relevant asset-based approach to natural resource management (NRM). It is being actively applied already in Western Australia and Victoria, and there is interest from another three states. The core aim of INFFER is to help NRM investors to achieve the highest value NRM outcomes that are possible with the available resources. It covers environmental threats such as water quality decline, biodiversity decline, salinity and pest plants and animals. INFFER is designed to support rigorous and systematic decision making about investments in land management to simultaneously achieve multiple environmental outcomes, whilst being as easy as possible to apply. It is currently being applied in five regions across three states and has been used to determine 2008-09 investment in a Victorian region.

Potential for INFFER to contribute to Outcomes of CfoC

INFFER will contribute to the achievement of desired outcomes under Caring for our Country (CfoC) by providing a rigorous, transparent process for making specific investment decisions consistent with national priorities. INFFER will be used to assist in delivering on measurable outcomes in a number of CfoC priority areas and has already been used as the basis for advice given to officers developing the Reef Rescue and Sustainable Farm Practices packages.

The implementation of INFFER at the regional level will result in the identification of key biodiversity assets, critical aquatic habitats and other key natural assets, and it will identify integrated management actions to protect them where feasible to do so. This is achieved through assisting in the identification of priority investments, cost-effective interventions, and the appropriate choice of policy tools (the latter using the nationally and internationally recognised Public:Private Benefits Framework of Pannell (2008)).

Specifically, INFFER contributes to sustainable regional development through increased focus on attaining best NRM outcomes from public investment, including assessment of asset significance, threats to the asset or opportunities to improve its condition, technical feasibility of works, and the adoptability of works by private landholders or cost to government. The process relies heavily on the use of available technical information, community knowledge and consultation. It emphasises the importance of assessing the feasibility of achieving successful outcomes.

INFFER is complementary to and consistent with existing principles and approaches (e.g., salinity investment principles endorsed by Ministerial Council in 2007; the NRM Standard NSW; the NRM Investment Framework WA; and the Land Asset-Based Framework Victoria).

Regional NRM bodies are demonstrating high interest in INFFER as they respond to CfoC. Some are anticipating the requirement for more rigorous, integrated planning, and looking for ways to achieve this. INFFER is gaining increased attention as the best available tool for this purpose. The INFFER project team is currently working in partnership with five regions in three states (WA, Victoria, NSW) to apply the approach. Without active promotion there is strong interest from around eight additional regions nationally in five states.

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Activities and outputs

Embedding INFFER in Caring for our Country

This proposal would involve the Australian Government, participating state governments, and regional bodies investing in application of the approach, with an initial phase involving a small number of regions, followed by evaluation. If successful, it would lead to subsequent investment in broader roll out.

Regions would need to be provided with training and help-desk support in the use of the approach, and with required technical data (largely from state agencies). This support has been proven to be crucial in the successful application of new decision processes with regional NRM bodies. They would need to run strong community consultation processes to provide information about asset values and local knowledge, to be integrated with technical, economic and social information, using INFFER.

The proposal implies negotiation with states to secure their participation. Western Australia and Victoria are already actively participating in the INFFER project and considering its broader adoption. Three other states have been exposed to the approach and shown interest. The proposal is to pilot the approach in six regions to allow evaluation before proceeding to broader adoption. NSW DPI is an active supporter through development and delivery of training materials, as indeed are the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FFI CRC) who host the INFFER project.

In the one-year pilot phase, the approach would be to support and reward regions who participate, rather than making it a condition of funding. In the longer term, however, we would expect greater success with a move to the latter approach, to maximize the prospects of achieving the Australian Governments target outcomes for NRM. Regions will need to understand the approach and its full implications. Building capacity in regions through training and ongoing support is essential. Choices will be needed over where to locate and house the staff who are driving the pilot.

In applying INFFER, each region would take priority assets and outcomes specified by the Australian Government and their state government, and use INFFER to select specific targeted investments, specific interventions, and policy tools and would develop SMART target outcomes, providing a strong basis for subsequent M&E.

Communication of results

The processes of communication in this project will be just as important as the knowledge development, and indeed the two are integrally linked. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the CMAs, with high levels of participation of relevant CMA staff and board/committee members, as well as with policy agencies at state and national levels. The project will be linked to the web site for the existing INFFER research project (www.inffer.org has been registered) where results and progress (subject to restrictions on partner sensitivities) will be reported.

• Over the project a number of key outputs will be produced:
  Training materials developed with the EverTrain team will be housed and made available through the CoreTrain platform within Future Farm Industries CRC
• A report documenting outputs from the INFFER process (i.e. high-priority assets, recommended works, and recommended policy tools, ready for detailed feasibility assessment) in each participating region
• Regional staff trained in the principles and processes of INFFER
• An independent review of the project, assessing the appropriateness of broader rollout
• of INFFER, and any modifications needed for that to succeed
• Final project report

Timeline for delivery

1. Negotiation with states to secure their participation and assist with alignment of
   approaches, Sept 2008 - Oct 2009
2. INFFER implementation in selected regions, Nov2008 - Nov 2009
3. Independent evaluation of the project focusing on the appropriateness of broader rollout of INFFER, and any modifications needed for that to succeed, Oct 2008 - Nov 2009
4. Development of training materials with EverTrain and FFI CRC, Oct 2008 June 2009

Project description

1. Negotiation with states to secure their participation and assist with alignment of approaches

As well as working with the regional bodies, the project will build on already developed networks of the INFFER research project and maintain active engagement with policy makers and policy advisers at the state level to inform them about new policy design that takes into account bio-physical and socio-economic research. A combined bottom-up and top-down strategy would be most effecting in promoting this new approach to NRM prioritisation.

2. INFFER implementation in selected regions

The Australian Government will be consulted about which regions should first be approached to pilot INFFER. It is important also that the project works with willing regions. Regions known to already have expressed interest in INFFER and/or its predecessor SIF3 include Kangaroo Island (SA), West Gippsland (Vic), Goulburn- Broken (Vic), Glenelg Hopkins (Vic), Mallee (Vic), NRM regions (Tas) and Namoi CMA (NSW).

In broad terms, the philosophy of INFFER includes that it should be: firmly grounded in current research knowledge, integrated with local values and knowledge; comprehensive in its assessment of investment options; transparent and repeatable; easy to use; able to be applied using readily available information, or improved information as this becomes available; business-like in recognising limited budgets and in seeking the greatest environmental outcomes for the available budgets; and realistic in terms of the likely behavioural responses of land managers. The approach is intended to make it easy to condense a long list of investment possibilities into a short list of good investment prospects, suitable for detailed feasibility assessment.

The project will contact and discuss interest in INFFER initially with the CEOs of potential participant regions. If there is sufficient interest, then a detailed presentation will be given to the regions Board or strategic decision makers. It will be essential for each participating region to commit to partner with the project at the Board/senior governance level and from senior management including support from the CEO. This approach minimises risks and ensures there is buy-in from regions. In addition each region will need to identifying at least one internal staff member who is responsible for implementation of the framework. The approach of training an internal staff member builds regional capacity and enables local ownership of results.

The project will work closely with the nominated staff member within the region to provide whatever support and mentoring they require to implement INFFER. This will be in the form of training in what an asset-based approach means, the underpinning knowledge embedded within INFFER, facilitating meetings to ensure commitment and understanding of other staff within the region, understanding the institutional/cultural barriers present within the region, and working out what knowledge and data are available to assist with developing INFFER recommendations. The hands on implementation of INFFER will be done by the regional staff members themselves.

The steps involved include:

• Identifying high-significance natural resource assets in the region
• • Compiling a list of assets based on their official government recognitions in international (e.g. Ramsar listing), national, state and bioregional classifications;
  • Conducting workshops with key stakeholders and community members to identify assets of highest value to the local community;
  • Consulting local experts;
  • Verifying draft asset lists with staff and other stakeholders of the regional bodies.
• Assembling data on each asset to allow the assessment of likely costs and benefits of investing
• Conducting the INFFER analyses
• Reality testing and refining the recommendations
• Detailed feasibility assessment for recommended assets
• Identifying target outcomes for effective monitoring and evaluation

3. Independent evaluation of the project

An appropriate consulting firm will be engaged to undertake the evaluation. Key staff and stakeholders within the region will be interviewed once INFFER has been implemented to see how successful the approach has been, and to identify implications for broader rollout.

4. Development of training materials

A training package and manual for delivery to regional NRM bodies will be developed for INFFER in conjunction with the EverTrain team who are located within the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Key steps to develop training materials are:

• Liaison with regions to identify key staff, opportunities for training, preferred training modes
• Use of train-the-trainer, adult learning principles for delivery (co-presentation with dedicated staff member)
• Provision of materials in a range of formats including web delivery
• Trial and evaluate training
• Encourage region to region dialogue so that participating regions can learn from each other

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Monitoring and Evaluating the project's impact and success

As stated in the methods section, there will be an independent evaluation of the outcomes of the project as an integral part of the project. The evaluation will assess strengths and weaknesses of INFFER when applied at the regional level, the level of stakeholder engagement and changes to date in attitudes and behaviour of stakeholders. This will be conducted through interviews with key staff and stakeholders within the region once INFFER has been implemented.

Application of INFFER in itself will also greatly assist with monitoring and evaluation of NRM outcomes, through the development of outcome targets that are SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound).

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Partnerships

Key partners that will be engaged through the implementation of INFFER include:

• Community members with links to the regional NRM bodies;
• Catchment Management Organisations - Training for delivery and application of INFFER.
• Policy agencies in each state and nationally who are close collaborators with or service providers to the regional NRM bodies; those who provide funds and detailed policy directions to the regional NRM bodies
• Senior government policy officials and committees
• Dept of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Victoria - Investor, responsible for policy development at Victorian level.
• Investors in research aspects of the project: CERF program (DEWHA), Australian Research Council, Future Farm Industries CRC. There are a number of projects in the FFI CRC that INFFER will collaborate with, either through providing or receiving information.
• Dept Primary Industries (DPI), Victoria - Investor, delivery partner of CMAs

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